Haem Oxygenase 1 is a potential target for creating etiolated/albino tea plants (Camellia sinensis) with high theanine accumulation

Abstract

Theanine content is highly correlated with sensory quality and health benefits of tea infusion. The tender shoots of etiolated and albino tea plants contain higher theanine than the normal green tea plants and are valuable materials for high quality green tea processing. However, why these etiolated or albino tea plants can highly accumulate theanine is largely unknown. In this study, we observed an Arabidopsis etiolated mutant hy1-100 (mutation in Haem Oxygenase 1, HO1) accumulated higher levels of glutamine (an analog of theanine). We therefore identified CsHO1 in tea plants, and found CsHO1 is conserved in amino acid sequences and subcellular localization with its homologs in other plants. Importantly, CsHO1 expression in the new shoots was much lower in an etiolated tea plants “Huangkui” and an albino tea plant “Huangshan Baicha” than that in normal green tea plants. The expression levels of CsHO1 were negatively correlated with theanine contents in these green, etiolated and albino shoots. Moreover, CsHO1 expression levels in various organs and different time points were also negatively correlated with theanine accumulation. The hy1-100 was hypersensitive to high level of theanine and accumulated more theanine under theanine feeding, and these phenotypes were rescued by the expression of CsHO1 in this mutant. Transient knock-down CsHO1 expression in the new shoots of tea plant using antisense oligonucleotides (asODN) increased theanine accumulation. Collectively, these results demonstrated CsHO1 negatively regulates theanine accumulation in tea plants, and that low expression CsHO1 likely contributes to the theanine accumulation in etiolated/albino tea plants.

Comprehensive dissection of variation and accumulation of free amino acids in tea accessions

“…8A ) grown on the half-strength MS medium with 10 mM EA chloride, as well as longer root length compared with wild type (WT) ( Fig. 8B and C ), which was consistent with the inhibitory effects of Thea on root growth [ 42 ]. At the same condition, another substrate Glu in three CsPIF1 -overexpression lines was significantly higher than in the WT, suggesting that the EA availability is the key factor for the Thea accumulation ( Fig.…”